President Goodluck Jonathan has said that most Nigerian roads will be in good conditions in the next two years. Speaking during the inauguration of the
WEMPCO cold steel plant in Magboro, Ogun State on Thursday, the
President acknowledged that most Nigerian roads had been abandoned for a
long time.
He, however, gave an assurance that most of the roads would be in good shape by 2015.
He said, “We assure Nigerians that we
are intervening in our road reconstruction. It is not easy because this
country is very big and the road networks appear to have collapsed due
to long time neglect.
“There is no magic wand that the
government will use to repair all the roads at the same time, but we are
intervening massively, and if we progress at the rate we are
progressing, God willing, most of Nigerian roads will be motorable in
the next two years.”
The President was prompted by the Ogun
State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who complained that the
federal/state road dichotomy was frustrating the state’s infrastructure
development drive, especially in the area of road development.
“We have been trying everything possible
to make Ogun State conducive for business. Our investment drive is
being greatly hampered by an embarrassing dichotomy called the
federal/state roads,” the governor said.
Amosun remarked that Ogun State had
rehabilitated some federal roads considered very critical to the
economic development of the state; adding that this had not happened
without confrontations with the Federal Ministry of Works.
“As at present, our roads are wearing
new looks and have high standards. However, we are been accused by
agencies of the Federal Government of improving on roads in our dear
state. The most painful thing is that these federal roads are very
germane to our investment drive. The least we expect is for the Federal
Ministry of Works to come and disturb us,” he said.
While lauding the effort of the Federal
Government in rehabilitating the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Amosun said
the state would not hesitate to partner with it to repair the road.
This, he said, had become imperative because 83 per cent of the road was situated on Ogun State land.
In response, Jonathan, said “I believe
there is a communication gap between your government and the Federal
Ministry of Works. If not, those issues were not supposed to have even
come up at all. There is no controversy at all about a state or local
government intervening in any federal road. “I will emphasise that the ordinary
Nigerian does not want to know whether a road was built by the federal,
state or local government.
“However, if you intervene in a federal
road at a time we are not ready, and you want the Federal Government to
partner in terms of cost, then we will give you what we have planned for
the road. However, you must follow our procurement process for us to
pay you.
“But if you have money to build the
road, you don’t even need to bother with our procurement laws, you can
go ahead and build the road, but we will not refund any part of the
money.”
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